Vanishing on 7th Street. The Return of Brad Anderson to MM.

Thursday, August 14th, 2003 is a date that you may not recall until I mention the word blackout. At 4:11pm that day the lights went out affecting ten million people in Ontario and fifty five million people in eight U.S. states. There was traffic chaos, fear of the unknown, was it an act of terrorism? There was fun, drinking warm beer on bar patios, free ice cream but as the night waned and I continued to walk through the darkened streets of Toronto I began to see the look of primal fear in some people eyes and it scared me. Electricity is the very life blood of our modern society and that night it had disappeared and as the darkness continued the fragility of our civilization never seemed more open, more exposed. In a word it was chilling.

Where am I going with this?

Brad Anderson returns to the midnight madness programme for the third time with his latest feature, Vanishing on 7th street.

The film starts with a world wide blackout causing most of the human race to disappear, as the days continue there are fewer daylight hours. The world is slowly plunging into darkness. The film focuses on a group of survivors, Luke (Hayden Christensen), Paul (John Leguizamo), Rosemary (Thandie Newton) and James (Jacob Latimore). This premise in the hands of director Brad Anderson has me very excited.

There is a common thread between Brad's first two midnight outings. Session 9 in 2001 and The Machinist in 2004. He is a director that is quite skilled at working with actors to achieve brilliant performances, whether it directing the great ensemble cast of Session 9 or working with Christian Bale and his remarkable transformation in The Machinist. Mr Bale last 63 pounds in a matter of months and weighed only 121 pounds. Vanishing has Mr. Anderson working with Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton and John Leguizamo once again it seems Brad and his team have put together a great cast and to watch them work with this material is what going to the movies is all about.

Here is the trailer for Vanishing on 7th Street.



Vanishing on 7th Street screens:
Sunday, Sept 12th. 11:59pm Ryerson
Monday, Sept 13th. 2:00pm AMC 2

You can purchase tickets from the official TIFF website.